Angus Beath's Blog - a jotting down of thoughts, handy to remember things and general BS about the world.

Monday, 20 October 2008

Finishing up a job

Well, I've just resigned from my existing place of employment. Ironically I've done myself out of a job. When I started there was a *lot* to do - the network was a very organic thing, without meaningful or comprehensive backups, there were servers that were rebooting without warning or explanation and the desktops, don't let me start on the desktops!

So I built a new AD domain, put in new servers, replaced all the desktops, got LCDs on all the desktops and implemented fairly comprehensive backup/recovery solutions across the servers. All in all, fair better than when I arrived. Problem is, apart from some desktop support type stuff and the normal server maintenance I don't have a lot to do. The Debian GNU/Linux servers I've installed require minimal attention, while the Windows server (and usually they require a lot more time) are running very happily. I have used defence in depth to protect the network, rather than a hard outer shell and a soft middle as so many networks tend to have.

So why leave? I'm bored to be honest. It's time for new challenges. The lure of new work, new place and people is strong and while I'm not a particularly ambitious person, nor am I driven by money, I am pushed by my curiosity and the environment here isn't that interesting any more.

Often when people leave an organisation they either leave it well or badly. I intend to leave things as up to date and in a good position for the next person to look after it. Having come into organisations and seen the mess that was left by an employee who couldn't wait to go, I refuse to do that to someone else. It's really just wrong. Even though it's kinda boring stuff that remains, I'm working to get it all done.

Something I have noticed is that when you leave a job, or are in the process of doing so, people tend to treat you differently - it feels like you've pulled yourself out of the current that is the workplace and you're standing on the riverbank watching it go by. The busy concerns everyone else has, once so relevent to you, are no longer applicable and you can be much more objective about what's happening. If you could apply this to life in general - this extra awareness of things - I believe it would be quite useful. A detached view can help with understanding and problem solving. I've certainly noticed that a few of the ongoing problems here have become far easier to understand in the last few days. Although I haven't solved those problems, at least I have begun to think of ways to get past them. Sadly though, some people write you out of their awareness and interest once you tender your resignation and I feel sorry for them. Their view of life is so narrow that if you're not part of it, you become like a ghost to them. I realise this is probably their way of coping with change. Others though talk keenly about what you are going to, how things will be different and sometimes ask for advice on where they might go to find something different. These people never last long and move on too - following their dreams for something different.

Ah well, 9 working days to go and then it's off to a brave new (working) world!